User blog:TheAlphatheOmega/Grath
Grath's Ignition & Description Grath, Neo Earth system The A.N.F. ''Tenelapis ''drops out of warp, followed closely by the cargo ship. Ahead of them looms Grath, the only known gas giant of the Neo-Earth system. A massive, deep purple-red gas giant five times the mass of Jupiter, it is overlain with a high altitude layer of clouds, giving it a smooth polished look. Two giant ring systems surround Grath; ine close in, and the larger, thicker one farther out . Thousands of tiny moonlets and small worlds orbit, tumbling chaotically like a miniature asteroid belt. Farther out, nestled within the massive outer ring system, orbit two gigantic moons which keep the ring system stable. Both of these worlds are lifeless husks pocked with millions of craters from impacts with ring material, and the further out of the two shows evidence of having been shattered by a massive impact before reassembling itself. A small cloud of debris orbits this broken orb of rock. The other is covered in a pitted, icy crust which shows evidence of ancient flows of liquid water. Past the outer ring system, a single terrestrial planet occupies a near-polar orbit around Grath, with ninety percent of its surface covered by huge oceans of boiling magma which spew three hundred-kilometer tall incandesant fountains of lava from their depths. This firey world, largest of the three big moons, has it's own little moon orbiting around it, a small captured asteroid covered with solidified blobs of volcanic obsidian and basalt thrown up by the giant fountains. '' ''The large cargo carrier descends into the upper atmosphere of Grath, ejecting all six containers within. After the cargo vessel unloads and exits Grath, the containers break open, and huge, self-contained fusion control plants rocket out and head towards their assigned stations deep within Grath, awaiting commands. After each fusion control plant readhes its assigned station, the Io-class ship moves in closer to Grath. A small drone fired from the cargo vessel rockets away before turning around, capturing both Grath and the Io-class vessel in the view of its camera. On board the ANF ''Tenelapis, ''Tato examines the feed before giving a single order to begin the transmission. Across all frequencies, aimed at every navy, the transmission is broadcast, showing Tato along with the video feed from the probe. Tato: '"Greetings. For those of you who do not know me, I am Fleet Admiral Tato of Aneph. You may be wondering why I am broadcasting to all of you from Grath, but I guarantee you all, this is a message you do not want to miss. Some of you may be larger in numbers than the ANF, some of you may have more powerful vessels. However, what we lack in numbers, we make up in technology and ingenuity. For while all of you may be powerful in your own ways, only we can play God.... Behold our might!" ''Tato gives the order to activate the fusion plants and fire all the Earthshatter missiles. Deep within Grath, the six fusion plants undergo ignition, causing massive ripples of heat and pressure within Grath. Simultaneously, all 50,000 Earthshatter missiles are fired from the Io, each one specially modified with a high-yield fusion warhead. The 50,000 missiles plunge into Grath, rocketing towards the core, protected by specially developed magnetic and plasma shielding. The ripples from the fusion plants, which are protected by more powerful versions of the shielding, reach the core of Grath at the exact same time as the missiles, which detonate all at once. The sudden detonations, contained and focused by the shockwaves of the fusion plants, spike temperatures and pressures within Grath to truly unimaginable levels rivalling those of the core of the sun. A fusion reaction begins, growing more and more powerful, sustained by continuous pulses from the fusion controllers higher up in Grath's stormy atmosphere.... The drone captures it all. For several minutes after the missiles dissapear into Grath, nothing seems to happen. However, the steady haze in the upper atmosphere suddenly begins to break up, revealing an astonishing sight below. The newly-revealed clould layers of Grath seem to be coming to a boil, growing more and more tumultuous and chaotic. A deep red glow begins to emanate from Grath as the chaos worsens. Suddenly, a huge bubble of superheated plasma bursts through the clouds, shining bright orange-yellow. More bubbles begin breaking through, until the visage of Grath is marred with thousands of roiling bubbles of plasma. Without warning, two of the bubbles merge, and a massive flare of plasma rockets towards space, frying several hundred moonlets before looping back down. The orange loop is joined by others where bubbles merge, and soon the entire region around Grath is cleared of small moonlets, while the innermost ring burns white hot and evaporates away. The glow from Grath brightens gradually, as the gas giant becomes completely covered with plasma upwellings. As the last region of unmarred clouds becomes overtaken by plasma, Grath suddenly seems to shudder and flicker as its burning atmosphere expands and eventually stabilizes in a new configuration, before a massive burst of intense light temporarily overloads the probes camera. As the probe refocuses and the image stabilizes, an awe-inspiring, simultaneously beautiful and terrible sight appears: Grath the gas giant is no more; instead, it has been ignited, and it's surface now erupts with solar flares and sunspots and glows with a powerful, terrible scarlet light. Turning his back to the spectacle, Tato adresses the viewers of the transmission. 'Tato: '"Grath exists as a gas giant planet no longer... Grath is now a star. Grath is a star that the Aneph can control. We can change its temperature and brightness, trigger solar flares and Coronal Mass Ejections, and more. While many have power, only we have the ability and willingness to play God. We are the ANF. Respect us." The transmission ends. All throughout the Neo-Earth system, from Calemare to Neo-Earth itself, a scarlet dot flares into existence in the night sky in Grath's position, bright enough to cast faint shadows. '''OOC: Basically I put this in a blog post so that it doesn't get buried in the comments section. It might be important later, expecially since it adds some more terrirory that is kinda up for grabs. However, please give me some time to sort some stuff out. ---- List of major moons *'Crucible: "Past the outer ring system, a single terrestrial planet occupies a near-polar orbit around Grath, with ninety percent of its surface covered by huge oceans of boiling magma which spew three hundred-kilometer tall incandesant fountains of lava from their depths. This firey world, largest of the three big moons, has it's own little moon orbiting around it, a small captured asteroid covered with solidified blobs of volcanic obsidian and basalt thrown up by the giant fountains." '' Crucible is the largest and outermost moon of Grath. Large enough to be a planet, Crucible is a firey world. It's atmosphere is extremely thin, but also extremely hot. The fire fountains reach high enough to affect Cueball, which is the small moon of Crucible. These fire fountains, coupled with the hot, thin atmosphere, make this planet-sized moon a real downer at parties. However, lava mining and geothermal energy potential make this a very valuable, if completely inhospitable chunk of real estate slightly larger than Mercury. *'''Shard:' '"Farther out, nestled within the massive outer ring system, orbit two gigantic moons which keep the ring system stable. Both of these worlds are lifeless husks pocked with millions of craters from impacts with ring material, and the further out of the two shows evidence of having been shattered by a massive impact before reassembling itself. A small cloud of debris orbits this broken orb of rock. The other is covered in a pitted, icy crust which shows evidence of ancient flows of liquid water. 'Aptly named, Shard is a broken world. Similar in size to Titan, Shard is a rocky moon that was cracked into ten large pieces billions of years ago by a mammoth impact event, whose impact basin can still be seen on the western hemisphere. Shard proves that time does not, in fact, heal all wounds. Massive cracks indicate the borders between the ten shards, and these cracks can be up to several kilometers wide and extend straight down to the core. The cracks all meet up at the impact basin, forming the likeness of a bloodshot eye. Residing within the outer ring system of Grath, it is frequently impacted by ring material, which has left it completely covered with craters. Shard is a miner's paradise due to its extensive fracture network, but it is also incredibly dangerous. The major pieces of Shard have not solidified into a single body, and they often shift, causing extrordinarily severe earthquakes and changing the geometry of the fractures. Shard's fractures have been known to split open and suddenly slam closed during seismic activity, crushing and entombing anything unfortunate enough to be caught within. A cloud of impact debris also surrounds Shard, making it very hazardous to approach, leave, and orbit. *'''Frission:' '"Farther out, nestled within the massive outer ring system, orbit two gigantic moons which keep the ring system stable. Both of these worlds are lifeless husks pocked with millions of craters from impacts with ring material, and the further out of the two shows evidence of having been shattered by a massive impact before reassembling itself. A small cloud of debris orbits this broken orb of rock. The other is covered in a pitted, icy crust which shows evidence of ancient flows of liquid water." 'Frission is the smallest, innermost moon of Grath. Orbiting just within the outer ring system, this pitted world is, at first glance, similar to Europa. It has a rocky interior with a thin icy shell, and they are about the same size. This is where the similarities end, however. Frission's orbit within the ring system leads to constant impacts, which have cracked the ice over its lifetime. Fissures indicate where the ice has been cracked, and evidence of ancient rivers that flowed from these fissures exists where craters haven't erased them. Unlike Europa, Frission has lost most of its subsurface ocean due to bleeding and evaporation from the impact-induced fractures, and a lack of tidal heating has prevented Frission from melting any ice to replenish its ancient internal oceans. While radioactive decay has been sufficient to maintain a few pockets of liquid subsurface water, Frission is a mostly barren husk of solid ice and rock. However, due to the constant evaporation of water ice from impact events, Frission does have a substantial atmosphere of almost 100% molecular oxygen. Addendum: since Grath is now going to be heating Frission due to it being ignited into a star, Frission will begin to melt down and become a bit more friendly and habitable. Therefore, while Frission may be the least appealing moon to grab at the moment, over time, it will become the most habitable of the three known large moons. ''I may add more moons or moonlets or other bodies as they are "discovered (translation: as they are needed)"' ---- Category:Blog posts